I Don’t Like Dave Ramsey & Here’s Why

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion and you may not agree with me and I'm okay if you don't agree with me.

Back when I was in college, Dave Ramsey's programs began to become popular. And I looked into them, but couldn't get myself hooked into doing the work on my money that way.

And at the time, I had no idea why this didn't work for me.

But over the past few years of being a money relationship coach, it all hit me why I don't like him.

His program doesn't do any mindset work to figure out why your habits are the way they are to begin with. He just dives right into you creating your emergency fund and the throwing as much of your income at your debt to get you debt free. And even getting a second job, temporarily, to make extra income for a short time period.

This may work for some people, but for many others, myself included, this doesn't work.

The first step to changing the way you spend money and take care of the money in your life, is to dig into your beliefs and how they have been formed so they can be changed. Because if these habits around money aren't changed before you do the work, you'll revert back to these habits after you have paid off your debt. This is just how the human brain works.

This step is skipped with Dave's programs.

And for some of those that complete his program, they end up reverting to their old habits and racking up their debt again and again.

It may be awesome to be able to pay off all your debt in record time, but if you can't change the underlying beliefs to why you are the way you are, you will end up going back into debt again. Doing the program again and racking up the debt again.

Once you do the mindset work, Dave's program will be amazing. But the mindset work needs to be done first.

It took me years of trying to figure this out for myself and attempting all kinds of different things to be able to change the way I cared for my money. And it was over the past two years when things in my life just got to a point where I had to do the mindset work for many things in my life, not just the money. But this is how I realized why Dave's program doesn't work for me and how I can change what I do.

Your mind is wired to think a certain way. And you are going to continue to think that way until you begin to open up to new possibilities and letting things change in your life.

And then after you do the mindset work (even while you are doing the mindset work), you can dive into Dave's programs to start paying off your debt using his methods. But if you don't change your habits and actions around money, paying off your debt isn't going to help you in the long run.

What mindset work have you done around your money?

Does money leave your bank account faster than it comes in?

It may be time to reset your money mindset.

Get this free guide to walk you through the process of resetting your money mindset in just a few short hours. Figure out why money doesn't stick around for you today.

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Clarissa Wilson is a financial strategist and online educator who holds two master’s degrees in Forensic Accounting. Also creative and spiritual, she is an intuitive empath and introvert.
Clarissa is the host of The Prosper + Profit Podcast, where money conversations occur on a daily basis -- as she believes that money shouldn’t be a taboo subject. After growing up on a dairy farmand learning to work hard for money, Clarissa awakened to a path that allowed wealth to flow easily to her.
Clarissa currently lives in Pennsylvania with her two cats.